ONE of the world’s longest-running conflicts has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. And its future will lie in its past.

In 1917, the Balfour Declaration of only 67 words transferred rule of Palestine to the British Empire as a temporary national home for Jews. Arthur Balfour asked Lionel Walter Rothschild and Chaim Weizmann to submit a draft as a public declaration. Further drafts were discussed with input from the Jews but with no representation from the people of Palestine.

Its contents have had a seismic effect on Palestine to this day. 

It committed the British government to confiscate Palestinian lands for new Jewish immigrants. Also, it was payment to the Jewish people for their support against the Turks during World War I. 

The declaration represented the first public expression of support for Zionism. The term “national home” had no precedent in international law and was intentionally vague on an establishment of a Jewish state. It also called for safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinians.

The Jews then were fleeing the Nazis.    

They supported the idea of Zionism. They were mainly survivors of the European catastrophe, claiming their right to a life of dignity, freedom and labour.

In 1936, the Arab National Committee launched a general strike to protest British colonialism. The strike was brutally repressed by the British with mass arrests and home demolitions, a practice Israel continues today.

In 1947, The United Nations (UN) adopted Resolution 181, which called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, allotting to the Jewish state 56% of Palestine, including most of the fertile coastal region. The British could not handle the tumultuous territory and had conveniently passed it to the UN.

At midnight on May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel proclaimed a new state of Israel and the United States immediately recognised it.

White House staff had differing viewpoints. Some felt it was a response to the holocaust and would benefit American interests. Others were concerned it would create more conflict in a tumultuous region.

Proclamation of the new Jewish state

It was promised that the state would be developed for the benefit of all based on precepts of liberty, justice and peace as taught by the Hebrew prophets. Full social and political equality would be upheld without distinction of race, creed or sex. Freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture was guaranteed along with the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions. Israel was ready to contribute to the peaceful progress and reconstitution of the Middle East.

In 1948, the Nakba (ethnic cleansing) of Palestine happened and today the people’s descendants live as six million refugees in 58 squalid camps in Palestine and the neighbouring countries.

Jewish settlements are illegal under international law yet over the years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved to colonies built on stolen Palestinian land.

The first intifada in 1987-1993 led to the establishment of the Hamas movement,

The United States has religiously provided aid and contributed more than US$150 billion to Israel, the largest cumulative recipient of American foreign assistance since World War II. Since 2019, the yearly aid was raised at a minimum of US$3.8 billion. 

In 2018, the Trump administration cancelled funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, and relocated the US embassy in Jerusalem. 

In 2020, the Trump administration released the long-awaited Peace to Prosperity plan, whch supports future Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank and control over an “undivided” Jerusalem. It was rejected by the Palestinians.

The US also gave millions toward resettling migrants in Israel.

Today, as the US decries unlawful practices abroad, it appears to have lost the moral authority. There are the Camp David Accords, Oslo Accords and normalisation accords but there’s a thin line between optimism and eyewash.

In addition to financial and military aid, the US also provides large-scale political support, having used its UN Security Council veto 42 times – out of the 83 times its veto was used – against resolutions condemning Israel.

Moreover, Israel’s coalition government has persisted in the expansion and development of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In the latest conflict, the US will provide an aircraft carrier to support Israel. It is ironic that the US is helping Israel to develop one of the most advanced militaries in the world. 

And Hamas is just a resistance movement.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting to discuss the renewed violence in the region but failed to deliver a consensus statement.

Israel started with just a 67-word declaration and we can easily resolve the conflict the same way: with a simple declaration by the UN.

I would suggest that US, as Israel’s biggest supporter, carves out part of California for the creation of a Jewish state. 

This is an opportune time to do so as more people are leaving California because of housing pressure, budget deficits and an ageing population. Israel with its technological prowess could help restore California to its former glory.

US would save about US$4 (RM19) billion yearly in aid and the Jews would get what they want: a life of dignity, freedom and labour undeterred by hazards, hardships and obstacles.

The Middle East would be a peaceful place and surely, Palestine will give easy passage to Jews on pilgrimage.

What say you… – October 12, 2023.

* Saleh Mohammed reads The Malaysian Insight.